


Love at First Bite

by specificlatentheat



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Vampires, attempted humour, but mostly just really relatable inner turmoil from yams, one shot for now, tsukki is bad at expressing himself, um this is kinda just bad, will edit and tag later, yamaguchi is a vampire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 05:48:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17278250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/specificlatentheat/pseuds/specificlatentheat
Summary: Why is a vampire good to take out for meals? Because he eats necks to nothing!





	Love at First Bite

**Author's Note:**

> ((God this is so awful I hate the pacing of it, and most of the dialogue, especially the texts ugh!! Putting this up solely if someone feels like they want to critique it, because I really liked the first bit and then it went to utter crap.))

Yamaguchi is just your average, run-of-the-mill (trying to be) vegan vampire. He was born into a high standing family, with acres of land and servants to tend to it, but he didn’t have that sort of upbringing, and he was still very much the awkward teenage mess every vampire is at the age of 17.

There are some myths he needs to dispel about vampires. Firstly, they grow at the same rate as humans- staying one age forever would be terrifying, even for creatures who pretty much live off comsuming blood.

Secondly, crosses don’t really affect him. Religion is a concept, and it was all created by someone, and that someone could be a vampire for all you humans know. Yamaguchi is just as afraid of them as a normal god-fearing human would be.

Thirdly, there are alternatives to blood. There are supplements, and animal blood, and nothing that tastes quite as good as human blood, but some things get quite close.

Yamaguchi lived with his grandparents, in a rural village with three post offices and only one major corporation supermarket chain. He was sent there from a young age, his parents going on about something like learning humility, and not taking his privilege for granted.

He knows it’s just something they told him so they could kick him out of the house until he wasn’t a snot-nosed brat anymore, but it stuck with his grandpa. So he was forced to go through with arduous tasks, like grocery shopping, and high school.

He’d always come up with new things to test him with, and Yamaguchi was too terrified of him to argue. For a good month or three, he was forced into doing army-style drill right when he got up- it did nothing for his mental health, but physically he was in tip top condition.

He even began playing in his highschool volleyball team, and they played pretty well for only having a run down gym, which hadn’t been refurbished since 1997. His volleyball team were basically his only friends, but that was to be expected in his small, closed-minded town.

After he joined the team, his grandfather had laid off a little bit (his grandmother probably helped with that), but just last week he had come out with the worst idea yet. Worse than the drill, or making him sleep on the floor for a month, or making him go to judo practice every night for a year.

He had to go vegan. As a vampire, that was pretty much impossible- their supplements were meat, and blood.

But, no matter what he thought in his head, Yamaguchi was still a scaredy cat, and had agreed with a simple, “yes, grandfather,” when it was suggested.

So that’s where he starts in this story, 17 years old, socially awkward, and painfully vegan. A vampire- a vampire who’s late for volleyball practice.

“I can’t drive you every day!” His grandmother scolds under her breath while she opens her door of the car, and lowers herself into the seat behind the drivers wheel.

They both slam their car doors at the same time, and the car shudders as the engine wakes up. “‘Ma, it’s just for today!” Yamaguchi whined, and his grandmother’s fingers tightened around the wheel.

They were set in motion backwards, and the sun reflected off her wedding band as she tutted. “That’s what you said last Thursday, please don’t make a habit of it.”

Yamaguchi nodded sullenly, and checked the front pocket of his bag to see if he had his wallet and his phone. He did, and he quickly keyed in his passcode into his phone, tapping to open their volleyball group chat.

5.35/Dadchi: “Today’s practice is important, we’re trying out putting some players in new starting positions for a trial run. Be ready to work hard!”

5:35/NOYA!!: “SOUNDS EXCITING!! :) How exactly would that work?!”

5:37/Suga: “it’s just something new we’re trying out once, to see how generally skilled our players are, and how they can help others in different positions (possibly)!”

5:48/Tsukishima: “K”

5:50/Kageyama: “Do I really have to change?”

5:51/Suga: “yes.-.”

6:10/Hinata!!!!!: “sounds good to me!!!!”

Read reciepts were on, so Yamaguchi could see that everyone had read their text exchange, even if they hadn’t commented on it (probably not even awake at the time the messages were exchanged, he hadn’t been).

Yamaguchi was probably the only one late for practice anyways. He was only 10 minutes late when he had started off, but the traffic had made that translate into being 30 minutes late, and he was sure that when he arrived it would be too late to even bother getting into his volleyball uniform.

When he finally got up to his school, and kissed his grandmother on the cheek before getting out of the car, he knew that he definitely had no hope of getting to practice, even to greet his teammates.

(Well, maybe he did, but he didn’t want to induce Daichi’s wrath after he didn’t attend practice).

So he quickly found his way to the east entrance of the building and slipped into the classroom he worked in. He pulled his bag under his arm and got his books out while sitting down behind his desk.

He took a swig of water from his water bottle, accidentally knocking the lid onto the floor, and he watched it roll a couple desks away, where it settled underneath a bookish looking girl’s seat.

He let out a small sigh, already feeling the awkwardness of the situation, and quickly got up and wondered about the best way to grab it without getting too much attention, but without just creepily leaning down and grabbing it from under her feet. He decided on the excessively happy approach, in the end.

“Sorry, I just dropped that!” He laughed slightly awkwardly, and she looked down at her feet while her mouth opened slightly in understanding. He thought she was kind of cute, in that whole ‘I’d totally drink your blood’ sort of way.

They both leant down at the same time, and she quickly retreated. He followed through and picked up his bottle lid, and shot her a quick smile. She looked even more terrified than he felt.

“Thanks, sorry again!”

“It’s, it’s alright!” She smiled weakly back, and Yamaguchi felt like he had made a slow sort of progress with the girl. He had only felt a slight longing for her blood, which meant he was getting better at the whole vegan thing.

He returned to his desk instead of continuing their conversation (or their exchange of words that resemble a conversation), and he hadn’t realised that in that less than a minute moment, Tsukishima had settled in the desk next to his.

“Why didn’t you come to practice today?” Tsukishima asked him, not unkindly. Tsukishima looked up at him, just above his glasses, and even though Yamaguchi knew that Tsukishima looked pretty handsome and all knowing right then, he also knew Tsukishima didn’t see a thing.

Yamaguchi laughed guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck, “I slept in, sorry, Tsukki!” Tsukishima tutted at him, playing with a curl next to his glasses. Oh, Yamaguchi would seriously love to taste his blood.

“Not me you should apologise to, Daichi thought you had been attacked on the way to school, or something,” he chuckled mirthlessly, and kept distractingly pulling his hair between his fingers. Yamaguchi had the sense to look sheepish.

“When actually it was me being attacked,” he sighed, irritated at even the thought of the event which had occurred earlier in the morning. “Some local girl cornered me while I was buying a drink, and I had to fake a phone call and a family emergency to get out of walking to school with her.”

Yamaguchi chuckled, glad it wasn’t anything too serious or out of the ordinary. “Sorry Tsukki,” he patted his head, prentending not to notice the boy’s glare or the flush of his own ears.

“She said she had seen me walking alone recently, and didn’t want me to feel lonely,” Tsukishima stated, deadpan. Yamaguchi felt slightly guilty about that, he hadn’t meant to leave him without warning him he wasn’t going to walk, but it had always just happened, because he was just late.

“It’s only been like, three days,” Yamaguchi tried to justify, and Tsukishima just tutted back at him. Yamaguchi could tell it was his weird version of humour, but it still made him feel bad.

“Three days too long, apparently people think we’ve fallen out,” he patted Yamaguchi’s head, mocking the boy for doing so earlier, but Yamaguchi couldn’t help but admit he would like it if he would do that for real.

The dependant, pathetic part of Yamaguchi wanted to be loved, pitied, cried for, by Tsukishima. He wanted to be noticed, to keep his attention. Well, he also wanted his blood, but he told himself he wouldn’t taint the one clear friendship he had since he had arrived in their village.

“Well we haven’t!” Yamaguchi exclaimed stubbornly, and when nearly everyone turned to look at him he sunk into his seat.

Tsukishima did the same, just a bit more subtly, exclaiming under his breath, “I know that, stupid!” Yamaguchi’s heart felt weirdly warm. It was nothing romantic, and it never would be, but even hearing readfirmations of their friendships made his heart flutter (he meant something to Tsukishima!)

“Make it up to me by walking home from practice with me.” Tsukishima ordered, sort of. Yamaguchi wasn’t too fussed about being ordered about, opting to just happily agree.

“Okay Tsukki!” He nodded, before a frown fell upon his features, “I have a essay I was thinking of doing today, so I’ll walk with you till the library, if that’s okay.”

Tsukishima sighed, more irritated than he should have been, but quickly cleared up his troubled expression. It set off muffled alarm bells in Yamaguchi’s head, but in the end Tsukishima just told him, “I’ll sit with you, I could get some work done.”

“Okay Tsukki!” He didn’t want to make him think he didn’t want to spend time with him (even though he wouldn’t, Yamaguchi didn’t think he ever thought about what anyone else felt about him). “Oh, but...”

He wanted to tell him they didn’t have practice, but he didn’t want to sound like he was making him seem stupid. “But what?” Tsukishima sounded annoyed, and Yamaguchi quickly tried to justify himself.

“We, uh, we don’t have practice today.” Tsukishima froze slightly, before shrugging. He leant down on his elbows onto his desk, and let out a small sigh.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi,” He muttered, and Yamaguchi just nodded at him. He felt like the blood was rushing about his head, and opted to begin leafing through a random book, when their teacher arrived.

Class commenced, and his thoughts stopped. Mostly. He still thought about Tsukki, and blood, and Tsukki a bit more, but he mostly kept on topic. What was the topic again?

But whatever. He was invited to walk home with his crush! Which would be big news, if that hadn’t happened every other day, and they hadn’t been best friends since childhood.

And suddenly, class was over. He had copied down a couple of notes, on acceleration and velocity, and it was breaktime. And then some notes on English, Maths, and two hours of Sports Education, and he was done.

And he was walking home, with Tsukki, like he always did. It hit him how life was so cyclical, and everything was a routine, and he suddenly felt a bit dizzy. Dizzy, deathly, disoriented, but he later would suspect it had nothing to do with his mental state, but more his blood deprivation.

“Tsukki,” he started, without thinking. Tsukishima looked at him through his glasses, calculating but not exactly cold. “Can we stop for a moment, I need a break.” He touched his upper arm slightly, to try and implore him into listening.

“You need a break?” He asked with a snort, before he realised how actually he meant it. “Have you seriously gotten so unhealthy with not playing volleyball for a week?”

“No!” Yamaguchi didn’t know how to phrase it, in a way that didn’t make him sound incredibly unhealthy, and that didn’t make him sound like he was being deprived of food by his grandparents.

Except that was exactly what was happening- he couldn’t say that though. “I feel dizzy.” He mentioned mock-casually, while looking out to the side of Tsukishima. He placed himself against a wall, almost gingerly, and made eye contact with him.

He didn’t quite soften, but his voice dropped to something more understanding, soothing probably, if it wasn’t Tsukishima. “Have you been feeling dizzy like this for a while? Is that why you haven’t been coming to practices?” Yamaguchi took the opportunity for a good excuse, and nodded quickly. Tsukishima looked understanding.

“Have you been to the doctors yet? They might be able to give you some sort of medication for it, is it just dizzy spells or anything else? Have you been throwing up, or getting migraines? Or is it just a lack of balance?” ‘What are your symptoms?’ he would have been better asking, Yamaguchi felt overwhelmed with his attention.

“I know why I’m feeling like this- I, I’m,” Yamaguchi sighed at how stupid it must sound, “I’m dieting.”

Tsukishima gave him an obvious once over, pausing to stare at his torso for a moment too long. “Dieting?” He decided to confirm instead of commenting, and when Yamaguchi nodded, he scrunched up his nose in confusion.

“But... You don’t need to lose weight?” He didn’t state, but asked.

“People diet for many reasons,” Yamaguchi decided to play it cryptically, fiddling with his fingers.

“You’re... healthy though?” Tsukishima reverted to asking questions, not exactly sure where this new, diet-prone side of Yamaguchi had come about.

“Yeah.” Yamaguchi confirmed, trying not to nod his head again, as he knew if he moved his head he would feel even more dizzy.

“Well then... Why?” Tsukishima asked, for once showing clear curiosity without any manners or customs to hide behind.

Yamaguchi cursed his straight-forward nature, he really didn’t want to lie to Tsukishima. But he couldn’t exactly say ‘my grandad thinks I’m dependant on drinking blood! Which is true! Because that’s one of the nutrients I need to survive! Because I’m a vampire! Surprise, Tsukki!’

But, he could say half of that, so he went with, “Grandpa put me on a diet, it’s not incredibly forgiving.” Tsukishima immediately groaned, having history with the pot-bellied man who had taken care of them every pre-pubescent sleepover they had.

By that, it meant that he made them run laps around the block every morning when he was on the ‘let’s get Yamaguchi fit!’ phase, and Tsukishima was forced to go with him. Since then, Tsukishima always found an excuse to go home early, and Yamaguchi couldn’t blame him.

“Why are you listening to that old fart?” He asked sharply, stuffing his hands in his coat pockets. “I mean, he shouldn’t dictate your eating habits to the point of you skipping practice and having dizzy spells. You look way more unhealthy than you looked before.”

“I looked unhealthy?” Yamaguchi focused on the end of his sentence, wondering how he looked unhealthy. He was blessed that he nearly never got bags under his eyes and his skin was olive-toned, so it’s not like he could have looked sickly pale like Tsukishima could.

Before he could start wondering whether that just meant Tsukishima thought he looked grim and sickly, Tsukishima hurriedly replied, “no, no, but you do now. You look fine though! Generally.”

Yamaguchi nearly almost definitely blushed. That was probably the closest he was ever going to get to a Tsukki compliment. He wasn’t too mad about it though, because it made it feel like every single kind word or phrase from him was like this, a pleasant surprise.

“It’s kind of a test of willpower...” Yamaguchi trailed off, not knowing what exactly to say without blowing his cover, “I think he thinks it’ll do me some good.”

“Well it won’t.” Tsukishima was so sure of himself, and it made Yamaguchi feel more sure. Who was his grandfather to tell him if he could drink blood or not? “You can always start eating dinner at my house.”

“No, I-” Yamaguchi started immediately, knowing he wouldn’t be able to get away with acting in front of Tsukishima’s family.

“Don’t argue. Just come over now.” Tsukishima left no room for arguments, but Yamaguchi couldn’t let himself just agree, because he knew he’d trip up, and end up exposing the web of lies he had just begun to spin.

“No, I really can’t-” he cut himself off. He realised that he’d have to tell him the truth.

“It’s not... a normal diet.” Yamaguchi started, “I eat normally, kinda. I don’t eat meat, or take...” he rephrased the word blood, “vitamin supplements.”

“Does that affect you a lot? Just eat more protein.” Tsukishima said, “or just start buying the vitamins yourself, if it effects you so much.”

“I can’t just buy them! Don’t you think I would have already?” Yamaguchi exclaimed, feeling agitated at the thought of blood, and how much he missed it.

“Why? Are they prescribed?” Tsukishima was being way too persistent. Yamaguchi’s head throbbed trying to keep up with his lies.

“No- yes. Only my grandparents can get it.” Yamaguchi replied, a bit frazzled.

“Why?” Tsukishima asked again, and that did it for Yamaguchi.

He wanted to say, ‘Because it’s blood, Tsukki! You can’t exactly go and buy that in the supermarket, can you?’ But he didn’t.

Or maybe he did, because Tsukishima’s eyes went wide and he took a step back.

“Crap!” Yamaguchi muttered, knowing all those years of lying had gone down the drain. His fight or flight response immediately went for flight.

Forgo-ing all sense of normalcy, like pretending it was a joke, or explaining, he looked in the direction of his home, and saw a clear path, so he pegged it.

He ran as fast as he could, which honestly wasn’t too fast, but he had the head-start over Tsukishima due to the confusion effect, so he was pretty sure he could outrun him.

Or that was what he thought, before he heard the pounding of feet on pavement behind him, and despite trying to speed up being yanked back by his bag. It was honestly terrifying to hear the heavy slap of Tsukishima’s shoes chasing him, so tumbling back into the taller boy before they came face to face wasn’t his ideal moment.

“Ok. No. You’re- you’re explaining that.” Tsukishima brokenly put together.

“Why did you have to chase me? Why couldn’t you have just let me run?” Yamaguchi asked, resigned to his fate at this point. The other boy was standing above him, but also almost around him, and Yamaguchi couldn’t run again.

“It was on instinct. If I let you run off, I had a feeling you would move to Mexico before ever talking to me again.” Tsukishima replied, before looking at Yamaguchi expectingly.

“Well,” Yamaguchi chucked awkwardly, “it’s a funny story actually. I come from a family of vampires. I’m a vampire. Haha. I drink blood. I don’t sleep in a coffin. There are lots of myths about vampires I would like to dispel, if you aren’t shit scared of me right now.”

Tsukishima stayed quiet, and out of nervousness, Yamaguchi rambled, “I mean, I don’t particularly like sunlight. But I don’t get burnt as much as you, so I don’t think it’s a vampire thing. Garlic just tastes grim. The whole thing about crosses and the power of religion burning vampires alive is such a lie. I mean, it seriously makes no logical sense, you know-”

Yamaguchi would have continued, but Tsukishima finally swallowed, and concisely asked, “you drink blood?”

Yamaguchi nodded silently.

“Your grandparents are vampires?”

More nodding, even though it just made his head hurt more.

“I stayed in a vampire’s crypt and survived the night.” Was that a hint of pride Yamaguchi heard? Maybe Tsukishima wouldn’t hate him forever and never talk to him again because he was a freak!

“I mean, technically. But, you’ve slept over so many times it would have been rude to drink your blood after so long.”

Was joking allowed in a situation like this? Was that even a joke? It was kind of a shit joke.

“I’ve slept over at a vampire’s house more times than I’ve gone to a hot springs.” That was slightly more panicked, and a bit fearful. Maybe Tsukishima would hate him forever and never talk to him again because he was a freak.

This was awful. Yamaguchi could not think of a worse scenario than having your long-time crush finding out you’re a vampire.

“Yes, but,” Yamaguchi reasoned, “I’ve never drank your blood, so- so, I wouldn’t start now.”

“Logically, that makes sense,” Tsukishima answered, calmer than what would be expected, “but why?”

“Why?” Yamaguchi questioned his question.

“Why haven’t you drank my blood?” The blonde asked slowly, hand automatically going to cover his neck.

“I mean, it’s just rude isn’t it! It’s like, how would you feel if I reached into your lunch and took it because I didn’t have any today?” Yamaguchi asked, and Tsukishima frowned.

“No, but that’s different.” Tsukishima reasoned, “also, I’d let you have some of my lunch.”

“You would?” Yamaguchi was more surprised than he should have been. He was talking to his childhood friend, he supposed it would be normal for childhood friends to share food.

“I’d... I’d probably even let you drink my blood. As long as you promised not to turn me into a vampire.”

Yamaguchi blinked once. Then twice. And then a couple more times. Just before it became a completely awkward silence he broke, yelling, “what?! Don’t joke around, Tsukki.”

“I’m being serious.” Tsukishima rubbed his neck again, looking... well... serious.

“You’re taking this way too calmly,” Yamaguchi theorised, “you’re going mad. The shock has gotten to you! You’re not thinking straight!”

“I mean,” Tsukishima paused, “I think I already knew. I remember hearing about it in the night one sleepover, when you couldn’t sleep. Your grandma had brought you some, and I was half-awake but you both didn’t realise. So I heard you ask for some blood.”

“...And you didn’t think to mention that, like, ever?” Yamaguchi asked skeptically.

“I mean, I think I just repressed it, in true 8-year-old fashion.” Tsukishima quipped.

“Ah fair... Very fair...” Yamaguchi bantered back, before pausing in uncertainty. “Tsukki, what happens now? You know my deepest, darkest secret. You can’t tell anyone!”

“Shut up, Yamaguchi, I wasn’t planning on broadcasting it anyways.” Tsukishima knew that was breaking some sort of unsaid code.

“I’m sorry but...” Yamaguchi began, before taking a deep breath, “were you serious? About the- about the blood thing?”

“I suppose,” Tsukishima replied, unreadable.

“I- I can’t turn you. That’s a vampire myth aswell.” Yamaguchi murmured, trying to gauge how far he could take this, and if he’d actually consent.

“Good to know.” Tsukishima replied, impassively.

“Can I?... Can I just... Do it?” Yamaguchi couldn’t help the neediness that seeped into his voice.

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t mean it,” Tsukishima was putting up a wall, to hide how he was afraid. Yamaguchi realised now. He didn’t know what to do, because his brain was telling him not to scare him, but he so desperately needed to drink some sort of blood after so long.

He decided, painfully, to listen to his brain, “look, Tsukki, I think we should just go home. You don’t need to do this, at all.” Yamaguchi went to leave, and Tsukishima grabbed onto the coat strap on his shoulder, pushing him into a desolate alleyway.

“No,” resolute now, he stood there, basically asking for it now. So Yamaguchi didn’t feel bad about reaching to push his blonde locks away from his neck, and placing his mouth close to his neck.

“Last chance to back out,” half expecting it, he paused with baited breath.

“No, you can- you can drink my blood.” Tsukishima stumbled once, but Yamaguchi hardly noticed because after a minuscule second his lips were on his neck, then his fangs were in his skin.

It was actually kind of manky, the idea of it. And Tsukishima probably realised that as he drank, but Yamaguchi sipped slowly, savouring the moment. He wondered, what base would blood drinking be? Like, if he was saying how he got to second base with his crush, how far would blood drinking be?

Before a minute was over, Yamaguchi pulled back, quickly licking over it, as if to soothe it. He tried to pretend he didn’t see Tsukishima’s horrified shudder.

“Sorry,” shame washed over Yamaguchi, “I shouldn’t have- I really shouldn’t have given in like that.” The downwards spiral began, regret making him feel anxious, like Tsukki hated him, without the other boy even opening his mouth.

“Let’s go home now.” Tsukishima murmured, rubbing his neck, surprisingly low and complacent.

“What?!” Yamaguchi shouted instead of asking, confused at how he could just brush that off.

“Stop asking so many questions. Let’s go,” and then Yamaguchi was running to catch up. Tsukishima’s headphones had gone up, and it felt like he had just muted Yamaguchi’s downwards spiral.

They walked and walked and Yamaguchi spiralled and spiralled, but they got to Tsukishima’s gate and the headphones went down, and Tsukishima opened his mouth.

Everything that could go wrong went through Yamaguchi’s head, like Tsukishima screaming at him and telling him he was disgusting and unnatural and that they’d never talk again and he’d tell everyone at school tomorrow.

But none of that happened, just an awkward bite of the lip and a mumbled, “that wasn’t so bad. I don’t mind if you ever need that again.”

Before he could question anything, Tsukishima was gone, and Yamaguchi was left with his big fat maybe not unrequited crush.


End file.
